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POPERY 


THE 


PUNISHMENT  OF  UNBELIEF. 


A  SEKMON 

Before  the  G-eneral  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
At  Baltimore,  May  25  th,  1848. 


ALEXANDER   T.  McGILL,  D.  D. 

Professor  in  Westorii  Tliuol.  Seminary. 


PHILADELPHIA : 

PRESBYTEPtlAX  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION. 

1848. 


EXTRACT  FROM  MINUTES  OF  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY. 

Resolved  1.  That  the  thanks  of  the  Assembly  be,  and 
they  hereby  are,  tendered  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  McGill,  for  his 
Sermon  on  Popery,  delivered  before  them  last  night,  and  a 
copy  be  requested  for  publication. 

Resolved  2.  That  said  sermon  be  committed  to  the  Board 
of  Publication  with  the  request  that  they  send  a  copy  to 
every  minister  in  our  connexion,  and  to  every  session  des- 
titute of  the  stated  means  of  grace. — Printed  Minutes^ 
[1848]  page  33. 


SERMON. 


And  with  all  deceivableness  of  unrighteousness  in  them 
that  perish  ;  because  they  received  not  the  love  of  the 
truth,  that  they  might  he  saved. — 2  Thess.  ii.  10. 

Scepticism  and  credulity  are  sisters,  however 
unlike  they  may  be  in  appearance.  There 
is  a  debility  of  understanding  in  the  man 
who  fails  to  believe,  upon  sufficient  evidence, 
which  will  always  subject  him  to  the  power 
of  delusion.  The  father  of  British  infidelity, 
Lord  Herbert,  of  Cherbury,  while  hesitating 
about  the  publication  of  his  book,  which  as- 
sailed the  foundations  of  Christianity,  prayed 
for  some  sign  from  God,  that  might  direct 
him  in  the  matter :  and  then,  standing..at*his 
window,  and  looking  earnestly  at  the  heavens, 
he  saw,  he  says,  "  an  opening  from  whence 
there  came  a  bright  light"  towards  himself; 


4  POPERY,    THE 


and  this  determined  him,  as  a  token  of  divine 
approbation,  to  publish  that  book.  The  same 
individual,  that  could  reject  the  overwhelm- 
ing evidence  of  Christianity  itself,  could  fol- 
low, at  the  same  time,  the  phantasy  of  his 
own  imagination,  with  all  the  devotion  of  a 
besotted  credulity. 

AVhat  is  true  of  an  individual,  in  this  re- 
spect, may  be  true  of  a  system,  a  generation, 
an  age.  Take  the  age  of  Porphyry,  for  in- 
stance, on  the  threshold  of  the  era  at  which 
history  w^ill  lead  us  to  start  with  the  subject 
before  us ;  an  age  extending  from  Ammo- 
nius  Saccas  to  Julian  the  Apostate.  The 
great  school  to  which  these  ancient  infidels 
belonged,  the  New  Platonic,  was  distinguish- 
ed, alike,  for  bitter  hostility  against  the  gos- 
pel, and  for  the  most  anile,  extravagant,  and 
frivolous  superstition.  Its  entire  aim  was  to 
find,  for  all  the  superstitions  of  all  ages,  a 
philosophical  basis  ;  and  thus  to  perpetuate, 
as  essentially  true  and  reasonable,  the  most 
absurd  and  debasing  systems  of  pagan  delu- 
sion   that   ever  existed.      That   school   was 


PUNISHMENT    OF    UNBELIEF.  5 

never  abolished.  Strangely,  it  found  asylum 
in  the  very  Church,  whose  nursing  fathers, 
from  Theodosius  to  Justinian,  pursued  it  with 
exterminating  edicts.  And  the  main  features 
of  the  wicked  and  mysterious  one,  described 
in  our  text,  are  precisely  its  great  character- 
istics :  unbelief  and  superstition  combined — 
believing  without  love,  and  believing  without 
limit — believing  too  little,  and  believing  too 
much,  in  mingled  deformity — a  proud  rejec- 
tion of  the  simple  truth,  and  a  mean  cre- 
dulity, a  deceivableness  of  unrighteousness, 
which  mav  be  carried  to  all  extremes  of 
damning  error. 

But  there  is  one  terrible  peculiarity  in  this 
baptized  perpetuation  of  a  system  which  Por- 
phyry and  Julian  bequeathed  to  the  Church ; 
one  that  is  exceedingly  hard  to  be  defined  or 
expressed,  though  abundantly  urged  in  the 
passage  before  us ;  and  that  is  the  curse  of 
reprobation,  judicial  abandonment  from  God. 
The  Spirit  of  God  restrained  the  working  of 
this  school,  and  similar  evils,  until  the  gos- 
pel should  be  proclaimed  through  all  accessi- 


6  POPERY,    THE 

ble  parts  of  the  earth ;  and  was  then  taken 
out  of  the  way,  in  sovereign  displeasure,  for 
the  lack  of  faith  and  love,  with  which  it  was 
reasonable  its  glad  tidings  should  have  been 
received.  Cast  off  from  the  presence  and 
Spirit  of  God,  in  vengeful  dereliction,  the 
rejectors  of  the  gospel  became  ^' those  that 
perish,"  and  an  easy  prey  to  an  anti-Chris- 
tian tendency,  which  had  been  working  from 
the  days  of  the  apostles,  and  indeed  from  the 
days  of  apostate  Adam  himself — to  stagger 
at  divine  truth,  and  lean  on  human  lies. 

We  assume  the  interpretation  of  this 
chapter,  that  identifies  the  great  apostasy  it 
describes  with  Popery,  which  we  define  to 
be  a  false  church,  distinguished  for  impos- 
ing an  excess  of  belief,  that  results  from  the 
w^ant  of  sound  faith,  and  is  incompatible  with 
the  exercise  of  such  a  faith.  And  were  we 
to  assume  it  as  no  more  than  hypothesis,  in 
the  investigation  of  any  clause  of  the  whole 
connexion,  yet,  would  we  be  compelled, 
from  all  the  sources  of  history,  observation, 
and  the  Bible,  to   see,  at  last,  that   we  can 


PUNISHMENT   OF   UNBELIEF.  7 

find  even  the  critic's  cool  consistency,  in 
nothing  but  the  lineaments  of  spiritual 
Rome. 

Like  every  other  prophecy  of  Scripture, 
it  was  not  understood  precisely  before  the 
time  of  its  fulfilment  came ;  except  for  the 
practical  use,  which  the  prophet  designed — 
to  relieve  the  Church  from  the  impression 
that  the  day  of  judgment  was  at  hand — to 
deter  believers  from  giving  heed  to  seducing 
spirits,  or  false  teachers,  who  were  already 
abroad — and  to  endear  the  ultimate  consola- 
tion, which  arises  from  the  discriminating 
and  eternal  love  of  God,  in  the  decree  of 
election.  Beyond  this  service  of  these  awful 
lines,  the  most  eminent  fathers,  from  Tertul- 
lian  to  Augustine,  frankly  confessed  their  in- 
ability of  comprehension.  And  the  maudlin 
piety  of  Popish  commentators,  would  fain 
persuade  us  now,  that  we  should  not  be  wiser 
than  the  ancient  fathers ;  that  it  is  equally 
incomprehensible  at  present ;  that  the  fulfil- 
ment is  yet  in  the  future;  and,  of  course, 
that  the  splendid  contribution  of  Protestant 


8  POPEKy,    THE 

faith,  to  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  in  the 
demonstration,  that  this  grand  prediction  is 
abeadj  turned  to  actual  history,  is  worse 
than  spurious. 

Here,  too,  we  have  Protestant  unity,  and 
Papal  distraction.  Scarcely  a  shadow  of 
variation  is  traceable  in  the  commentary 
of  all  evangelical  expositors ;  while  the  varia- 
tions of  Popish  conjecture  have  been  endless- 
ly diversified.  The  only  point  on  which 
there  seems  to  be  a  general  agreement 
among  them,  is,  that  this  anti-Christian 
power  must  be  that  of  an  individual  man,  on 
a  momentary  errand  of  vengeance,  in  the 
providence  of  God ;  and  not,  as  we  interpret, 
according  to  familiar  use  in  every  language, 
a  succession  of  individuals  representing  a 
system.  But,  to  look  no  further  than  our 
text,  we  ask,  what  individual  man  has  ever 
yet  been  found  in  history,  or  what  individual 
enemy  of  Christ  and  his  Church,  can  be  at 
all  imagined,  who  could  erect  dominion  in 
a  way  so  complicate  and  on  a  basis  so  impal- 
pable, as  these  words  suggest?     His  way  is 


PUXISHMENT   OF    UXBELIEF.  9 

a  train,  like  that  of  the  old  serpent  himself; 
stealthy  as  time,  versatile  as  change,  and 
inveterate  as  the  heresy  of  human  nature. 
His  legitimate  subjects  are  the  perishing,  the 
reprobate ;  who  are  left  with  a  curse,  to  the 
strong  working  of  error,  in  the  corruptions 
of  their  own  nature:  because  they  received 
not  the  love  of  the  truth,  that  they  might  be 
saved.  The  great  fact,  which  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  his  power,  is  the  most  inscru- 
table of  all  facts,  submitted  to  the  observa- 
tion of  men — the  judicial  dereliction  of  men's 
souls :  and  consequently  no  particular  his- 
tory can  be  made  out  of  such  a  fact :  all  par- 
ticular judgments  sent  on  any  church,  are 
sent  to  reclaim  her,  before  she  is  finally  cast 
away.  No  chronicle  of  one  man,  or  of  one 
epoch,  or  one  age,  can  comprehend  the  case 
before  us ;  nothing  but  an  empire  of  delu- 
sion, which  requires  many  ages  to  develope 
its  causes,  and  progress,  and  effects.  And 
when  we  read  that  it  began  its  working, 
even  in  the  days  of  the  Apostles,  when 
decay  was  manifest  in  every  visible  power 

2 


10  POPERY,  THE 


on  the  face  of  the  earth ;  that  it  was  re- 
strained for  a  season,  when  no  existing  pro- 
clivity of  man  was  restrained,  but  his  apos- 
tasy from  the  truth  of  the  gospel ;  that  it 
would  be  revealed  at  length,  in  such  a  form, 
as  would  require  no  more  than  a  pentecostal 
visitation  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  destroy 
and  consume  it ;  that  it  would  come  with 
miracles  of  falsehood,  which  Mohammed 
never  attempted ;  and  with  a  blended  exer- 
cise of  power  and  deceit,  which  no  other  in- 
dividual scourge  of  mankind  has  ever  exhib- 
ited ;  and  that  its  yoke  would  be  fixed,  not 
merely  on  disparaged  thrones,  and  dese- 
crated temples,  and  trampled  liberties  of 
men,  but  on  their  hardened  hearts,  for  dis- 
relish of  the  truth,  at  its  first  promulgation 
and  primitive  diffusion — can  we  forbear  to 
affirm,  that,  if  Popery  be  not  the  subject 
here,  the  Bible  has  one  prediction  that  can 
never  be  fulfilled,  and  history  a  lapse  of 
1800  years  that  can  never  be  explained? 

The  proposition,  then,  which  we  present 
from  these  words  is,  that  Popery  is  an  or- 


PUNISHMENT   OF   UNBELIEF.  11 

ganized  form  of  Gfod's  judicial  wrath  uioon 
the  unbelief  of  men. 

It  is  not  imported  in  this  proposition,  that 
all  individuals,  who  are  visibly  embraced  in 
the  system,  are  reprobate,  or  even  unbeliev- 
ing men :  for,  as  a  pious  individual  may  be 
left  in  the  hands  of  Satan  himself,  for  a  time, 
to  be  deceived  and  debased  by  his  wiles ;  so 
may  there  be  pious  individuals,  left  all  their 
lives,  to  the  delusions  of  this  wicked  one, 
whose  coming  is  after  the  working  of  Satan. 
As  there  may  be  reprobate  men  in  the  bosom 
of  the  true  Church  itself,  who  are  living  in 
judicial  abandonment  of  God,  so  may  there 
be  elected  men  in  the  bosom  of  an  organized 
antipathy  to  the  true  Church,  who  are  living 
in  covenanted  fellowship  with  the  Father  of 
mercies.  It  is  one  thinsc  to  be  the  victim  of 
its  power,  through  accident  of  birth  and  pre- 
judice, and  another  thing  to  be  the  subtile 
and  prepense  apologist  to  men  for  its  abomi- 
nations. 

Nor  is  it  imported  in  this  proposition,  that 
all  reprobate  men  have  feelings  of  affinity 


12  POPERY,    THE 

with  Popish  dehision.  Many  such  have  been, 
and  still  are,  ferocious  opposers  of  Popery, 
in  name  and  form ;  some  of  them  are  nomi- 
nal Protestants ;  many  of  them  open  infidels ; 
and  just  as  Babylon  of  old  was  swallowed 
up  by  another  oppressor,  as  the  dream  and 
drama  of  persecuting  power,  in  past  history, 
was  one  continual  succession  of  diverse  ma- 
terials, gold  and  silver,  and  brass,  and  iron, 
so  may  there  be,  after  this  golden  head  of 
spiritual  despotism,  other  forms  of  anti-christ- 
ian  hostility,  such  as  infidelity,  fanaticism, 
and  corruption  of  morals ;  which  may  be  wil- 
ling, for  a  season,  to  join  the  Church  herself, 
in  giving  Romanism  up  to  her  final  doom. 
We  mean,  that  thus  far  in  the  career  of  the 
gospel,  its  ''day  of  vengeance"  has  been  the 
day  of  Popery;  its  chief  retributions  upon 
unbelief,  have  been  embodied  in  this  form  of 
evil :  and  all  the  good  that  may  be  found  ad- 
hering to  Popery,  is  accidental,  as  much  as 
is  the  evil,  which  may  be  found  adhering  to 
the  true  Church  of  Christ.  Its  nature  is  an- 
tagonism to  his  kingdom.     Its  existence  is  a 


PUNISHMENT   OF   UNBELIEF.  13 

creature  of  his  wrath,  permitted  in  his  own 
absence  to  revenge  the  quarrel  of  his  gospel, 
on  the  enmity  and  unbelief  of  human  nature. 
I.  The  names,  which  are  given  throughout 
the  context,  show  the  truth  of  this  proposi- 
tion : — "  That  man  of  sin" — ^'  the  son  of  per- 
dition"— 'Hhe  mystery  of  iniquity" — "that 
wicked,"  or  lawless  one — not  to  notice  the 
minuter  description,  of  arrogance,  blasphemy, 
and  infernal  power  and  craft  of  falsehood. 
Can  we  read  all  these  denominations,  and 
ponder  on  the  use  of  them  in  Scripture,  and 
not  believe  that  the  Antichrist  portrayed,  is 
unmingled  opposition  to  the  kingdom  and 
truth  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  an  incor- 
porated castaway ;  a  contrariety,  which  is  in- 
finitely worse  than  corruption,  merely,  of  a 
real  but  revolted  church  of  the  living  God? 
Shall  we  not  believe,  with  Jonathan  Edwards, 
in  his  annotations  here,  that,  "as  Chris- 
tianity, or  the  scheme  for  setting  up  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  advancing  his  glory 
and  the  salvation  of  men,  is  called  the  mys- 
tery  of  godliness;  so   anti-christianism,   or 

2* 


14  POPERY,    THE 


the  scheme  for  setting  up  the  kingdom  of  the 
devil,  and  accomplishing  the  destruction  of 
men  by  Ayitiehrist^  is  called  the  mystery  of 
iniquity?  *  *  *  Here  is  fulfilled  what  was 
shadowed  forth  of  old,  by  the  murder  of  Cain, 
and  his  city  in  the  land  of  Nod,  and  by  the 
building  of  the  tower  of  Babel,  and  by  the 
city  of  Babylon,  and  by  the  mighty  Nimrod, 
and  Belus,  or  Bel,  and  by  the  city  of  Sodom, 
by  Egypt,  and  Pharaoh ;  and  the  great  things 
that  were  done  in  Egypt,  in  the  time  of 
Moses  and  Aaron,  are  types  of  what  is  done 
by  and  to  the  church  of  Rome.  *  *  *  Here 
is  the  antitype  of  proud  Nebuchadnezzar,  and 
Belshazzar,  and  Haman.  Here  is  the  anti- 
type of  the  city  and  king  of  Tyrus,  and  of 
Antiochus  Epiphanes ;  and  here  is  the  chief 
fulfilment  of  the  ancient  prophecies  of  Daniel 
and  other  prophets  that  relate  to  the  king- 
dom of  iniquity,  and  also  of  most  of  such 
prophecies  in  the  New  Testament.  On  the 
same  account  the  anti-christian  church  is 
called  Mystery,  Babylon  the  Great." 

II.  We  see  the  truth  of  our  proposition, 


PUNISHMENT   OF    UNBELIEF.  15 

when  we  consider  the  cause  of  liis  coming — 
the  want  of  faith  and  love  in  those  that  had 
the  knowledge  of  divine  truth;  an  enmity 
and  obstinacy  of  unbelief,  which  provoked 
the  Spirit  of  God,  to  leave  them  consigned 
to  certain  perdition;  ''because  they  received 
not  the  love  of  the  truth  that  they  might  be 
saved:"  of  such  his  kingdom  is  composed. 
These  are  the  original,  the  real,  the  ultimate 
subjects.  Popery  is  born  when  piety  dies. 
Its  acceptable  time  is  after  the  day  of  salva- 
tion; just  when  it  becomes  too  late,  in  the 
process  of  the  heart's  induration.  It  comes  in 
the  night;  not  of  ignorance,  nor  barbarism, 
nor  social  disorder ;  but  the  night  of  spiritual 
death,  which  followed  the  primitive  preaching 
of  the  everlasting  gospel.  It  comes,  not  to 
seduce,  so  much  as  succeed,  a  living  Chris- 
tianity; not  like  a  heresy,  which  taints  the 
food  of  the  soul,  or  mingles  a  feverish  life, 
with  the  healthy  pulsations  of  religion;  but, 
like  an  art  of  the  catacombs,  it  comes  to  em- 
balm the  dead,  the  dead  letter  of  religion, 
dead  symbols,  and  dead  saints,  with  all  the 


16  POPERY,    THE 

odours  of  sanctity;  and  then  to  seal  them  up, 
in  a  sepulchre,  for  ever. 

The  man  of  sin  was  the  product  of  his 
age.  An  age,  that  had  been  privileged,  to 
see  so  wide  a  diffusion  of  the  gospel ;  to  see 
the  miracles  which  attested,  and  the  trans- 
formations which  adorned  it;  the  progress, 
the  power,  the  glory  of  its  cause,  in  the 
season  of  virgin  purity  and  beauty,  could  not 
be  forsaken  of  God,  without  some  dire  de- 
vice of  man  to  attempt  another  mediation; 
could  not  be  cast  down  to  hell,  without  em- 
bracing a  monster,  w^hose  coming  would  be 
after  the  working  of  Satan.  It  would  have 
made  a  Papacy,  without  a  Victor,  a  Stephen, 
or  a  Constantino;  without  a  council  at  Sar- 
dica,  or  even  a  bishopric  at  Rome.  We  are 
told,  that  great  imperfections  among  the 
early  converts  from  Judaism  and  Paganism, 
laid  the  foundation  of  Popery :  undue  regard 
for  things  indifferent  in  themselves ;  promo- 
ting truth  and  duty,  by  artifice  and  fraud; 
the  notion  of  mystery,  transferred  to  the  sa- 
craments; the  notion  of  priest,  transferred 


PUNISHMENT    OF   UNBELIEF.  17 

to  the  elders;  excessive  veneration  for  mar- 
tyrs, ascetic  separation  from  the  world  and 
its  relations;  ambitious  contention  for  pre- 
eminence ;  these,  and  many  similar  elements, 
are  said  to  have  been  the  material  on  which 
this  mystery  of  iniquity  was  working,  for  the 
erection  of  his  power,  long  before  it  was  fully 
revealed.  But  these  all  are  common  weeds 
of  our  nature  that  never  prevail,  in  ''a  gar- 
den enclosed" — thorns  and  briers,  that  never 
grow  up  to  destroy,  until  the  ground  is 
thrown  out  by  the  husbandman,  and  "is 
nigh  unto  cursing;  whose  end  is  to  be 
burned." 

III.  The  manner  of  his  coming,  shows 
with  equal  force,  the  cursed  antagonism  of 
his  nature — "Whose  coming  is  after  the 
working  of  Satan,  with  all  power  and  signs 
and  lying  wonders,  and  with  all  deceiv- 
ableness  of  unrighteousness  in  them  that 
perish."  Can  there  be  conceived  one  ele- 
ment of  grace  in  this  utter  and  intense 
abomination?  Sincerity  is  the  lone  vestige 
of  godliness,  in  a  true  believer,  when  every 


18  POPERY,   THE 


tiling  else  is  sunk  from  our  sight,  in  ignor- 
ance and  error.  AYith  all  his  imperfections, 
he  is  an  earnest  and  honest  man.  So,  it 
must  be  with  a  church,  that  has  the  smallest 
claim,  to  be  considered  a  true  church  of 
Christ.  There  is  a  bottom  of  integrity, 
somewhere,  on  which  we  can  rely.  But  here 
is  a  system,  fraught  with  a  spirit  of  false- 
hood, which  is  absolutely  without  a  limit, 
save  the  honesty  and  impotency  of  hell  itself. 
Where  shall  we  begin,  or  end,  the  cata- 
logue of  his  unrighteous  deceit?  There  are 
the  convicted  forgeries,  on  which  his  wealth 
and  outward  estate  are  founded ;  such  as  the 
grant  of  Constantino,  and  the  decretals  of 
Isidore;  proved  to  be  forgeries,  even  by 
papal  historians,  before  the  great  Reforma- 
tion, and  acknowledged  to  be  such  ever  since : 
not  to  speak  of  many  a  minor  fraud,  in 
snatching  his  fortune,  advancing  his  throne ; 
such  as  a  letter  from  St.  Peter  in  heaven, 
through  Stephen  of  Rome,  to  Pepin  of 
France,  exhorting  him  to  rescue  the  Pope, 
from  the  hands  of  the  Lombard.     There  are 


PUNISHMENT   OF   UNBELIEF.  19 

the  pretended  miracles,  with  which  he  im- 
posed the  worship  of  images,  on  the  reluc- 
tant empire  even  of  the  Franks ;  their  weep- 
ing and  sweating,  and  moving,  and  speaking, 
to  persuade  a  scrupulous  world,  to  bow  with 
reverence  before  them  :  his  legends  of  fable, 
to  establish  the  worship  of  saints,  and  relics, 
and  bones,  beyond  all  power  of  speech  to 
number,  and  much  more  describe,  in  their 
falsehood  and  folly:  his  pitiful  lies  in  be- 
half of  the  wafer-god,  which  he  has  palmed 
on  the  faithful,  instead  of  the  one  sacrifice  of 
Christ,  ever  since  the  days  of  Gregory  I. 
— how  it  has  actually  bled  at  the  altar,  in 
the  hands  of  the  priest — how  it  turned  to  a 
boy,  in  a  beehive,  and  made  the  adoring  bees 
build  it  a  shrine  with  their  wax — how  it  made 
a  company  of  asses  fall  on  their  knees,  as  it 
passed ;  and  a  hungry  mule  turn  from  the 
oats  to  adore  it ;  and  a  ravenous  dog  turn 
on  the  nose  of  his  master,  an  infidel  Jew,  for 
throwing  it  down,  with  the  crumbs,  to  be 
eaten :  his  afi'ectation  of  superior  holiness,  in 
abstaining    from    meat,   and   forbidding   to 


20  POPERY,    THE 

marry,  and  the  whole  bondage  of  fear,  to 
which  his  religious  are  consigned,  in  viola- 
tion of  the  first  principles  of  Christian  piety : 
his  claim  to  exclusive  solemnity  of  worship, 
in  the  pomp  of  processions,  and  glare  of 
habiliments,  and  show  of  pantomime  action, 
that  impose  so  much  on  the  sense  of  the 
multitude :  his  pretence  to  infallibility,  and 
power  of  the  keys,  and  prevalence  with  God, 
visions,  and  revelations,  and  miracles,  per- 
formed at  his  pleasure:  and,  above  all,  the 
pretension,  that  he  has  all  the  truth  which 
we  possess,  and  much  more  besides :  so,  that 
his  votaries  are  safe,  heretics  themselves 
being  judges ;  when  he  cannot  but  know,  that 
the  immense  extent  of  his  adding,  has  buried 
the  truth,  mountain  deep,  from  the  eye  and 
heart  of  the  people — can  we  believe,  that 
such  unfathomable  depths  of  deceit,  so  un- 
righteous in  the  wilful  invention,  and  so  un- 
righteous in  the  debasing  effects,  may  be 
predicated  of  a  body,  that  has  Christ  in  it, 
to  any  degree ;  and  not  rather,  a  body  which 
his  wrath  has  entailed,  as  a  monument  and 


PUNISHMENT    OF    UNBELIEF.  21 

minister  of  judicial  abandonment  ?  "  He 
hath  blinded  their  eyes,  and  hardened  their 
heart,  that  they  should  not  see  with  their 
eyes,  nor  understand  with  their  heart,  and 
be  converted,  and  I  should  heal  them." 
Take  from  his  thraldom,  as  many  as  you 
please  to  call  "  a  remnant  according  to  the 
election  of  grace;"  he  himself  is  false  as 
Sodom,  and  equally  doomed,  without  re- 
demption, to  an  awful  and  perpetual  end. 

IV.  The  manner  of  continuance. — As  the 
man  of  sin  came  on  at  the  first,  so  he  has 
continued  till  this  day ;  with  one  remarkable 
difference,  which  essentially  indicates  a  re- 
probate mind — malign  exertion  to  resist 
the  truth,  to  pall  it  with  perpetual  night, 
and  quench  with  blood  its  resurrection.  It 
is  a  mistake  to  allow,  that  Augustine's  the- 
ology, was  ever  the  standard  of  divinity,  at 
papal  Rome ;  any  more  than  the  epistles 
general  of  Peter,  were  the  model  of  ency- 
clical letters,  among  his  pretended  succes- 
sors. Thougli,  for  many  a  reason,  which 
cannot  now  be  stated,  that  eminent  father 

3 


22  POPERY,    THE 


had  vast  authority  of  a  nominal  kind  in 
papal  dominions,  it  were  easy  to  prove,  that 
his  evangelical  system  of  doctrine,  was  al- 
ways at  war  with  the  heart  and  hand  of  this 
reprobate  power.  And,  though  he  succeeded, 
by  the  force  of  ancient  formulas,  and  the  in- 
fluence of  African  Synods,  to  convert  a  Pela- 
gian Pope,  so  far  as  to  obtain  a  formal  con- 
demnation of  Pelagius  himself,  yet,  his  views 
of  divine  grace  were  impugned  by  almost  all 
the  monks,  and  most  of  the  clergy,  during 
his  OAvn  life ;  and,  in  less  than  twenty  years 
after  his  death,  the  Semi-pelagian  Vincent 
of  Lerins,  gave  a  cast  to  Western  Catho- 
licism, which  it  has  ever  retained.  The  in- 
numerable Summas  of  stupidity,  compiled 
from  Augustine,  through  subsequent  ages, 
utterly  failed  to  embody  the  life  of  his  sys- 
tem. And  one  thing  is  certain,  that,  after 
the  man  of  sin  was  fully  revealed,  the  name 
of  Augustine  lived  to  be  sainted,  for  his 
arrogant  dogmas  respecting  the  church;  but 
the  scheme  of  faith  he  had  written,  was 
doomed,   as   often   as   it   dared  to   appear. 


PUNISHMENT    OF   UNBELIEF.  23 

How  was  it  persecuted  in  the  person  of  Got- 
teschalc — tangled  in  the  chicanery  of  School- 
men— tortured  in  the  disputes  of  Dominicans 
— slurred  in  the  Council  of  Trent — burned 
in  the  book  of  Jansenius !  And,  let  the 
myriad  martyrdoms  over  all  Western  Eu- 
rope— let  the  massacres  of  France,  the  In- 
quisition of  Spain,  the  murders  of  Ireland — 
let  the  plots  of  England,  the  wars  of  Ger- 
many, the  butcheries  of  Savoy,  attest,  how 
atrociously  hated  have  been  the  doctrines  of 
grace,  wherever  they  have  risen  in  spite  of 
her  frown !  What,  then,  can  we  see  in  the 
church  of  Rome,  like  a  '' pillar  and  ground 
of  the  truth?"  What  do  we  not  see,  like  "a 
pillar  of  salt;"  or  rather,  like  the  gates  of 
hell,  ever  raging  to  prevail  against  it  ? 

V.  The  place  of  his  continuance. — The 
region  of  primitive  preaching  in  Christian 
Europe,  is  almost  exactly  the  map  of  his  be- 
nighted territory,  until  this  very  day:  Italy, 
Spain,  France,  Portugal,  and  portions  of 
Germany.  Every  country,  which  claims  the 
honour    of    apostolic    planting,    with    any 


24  POPERY,    THE 

colour  of  historic  probability,  inherits,  pre- 
eminently, the  curse  of  apostolic  reprobation. 
The  purer  the  light,  originally  shed,  the 
longer  the  darkness,  which  has  followed  its 
forfeiture.  Better  than  all  the  le2;ends  of 
Spanish  tradition,  that  claim  the  bones  of  an 
Apostle,  in  St.  James  of  Compostella;  better 
than  all  the  whimsies  of  Parisian  antiquity, 
which  claim  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  in  the 
story  of  their  own  St.  Denys — better  pre- 
sumption, by  far,  for  both  these  vaunted 
claims,  is  the  fact  of  judicial  dereliction ; 
that  these  ancient  and  beautiful  lands,  have 
been  given,  so  long,  to  the  misery  of  Popish 
delusions:  for  the  depth  and  durability  of 
the  curse,  that  ushered  Popery  into  being, 
are  just  in  proportion  to  the  original  purity 
of  the  truth,  and  power  of  its  demonstration, 
with  which  any  country  was  favoured. 

Later  evangelical  countries  of  Europe, 
where  a  corrupted  Christianity  did  little 
more  than  baptize  the  Paganism  it  came  to 
supplant,  have  all  been,  more  or  less,  re- 
deemed from  the  power  of  Romanism,  and 


PUNISHMENT   OF   UNBELIEF.  25 

blessed  with  the  light  of  the  Reformation, 
established  among  them ;  such  as  England, 
Holland,  Saxonj,  Prussia,  Denmark,  &c. 
There,  little  or  no  gospel  truth  had  been 
known,  before  the  Reformation  had  dawned ; 
and  there  little  or  no  reprobation  from  God, 
had  infused  its  terrible  death,  into  the  slum- 
bers from  which  the  people  awaked.  Just  as 
we  descend  the  stages  of  Popery,  towards  the 
Council  of  Trent,  we  find  its  conquests  less 
durable,  its  overspreading  delusions  less  in- 
frangible. And  ever  since  that  epoch  of 
finished  apostasy,  how  transient  have  been 
the  triumphs  it  achieves !  how  quickly  all  its 
missions  are  blasted !  how  soon  overthrown, 
in  Africa,  and  India,  and  China,  and  Japan ! 
There,  it  has  had  no  commission,  from  the 
wrath  of  a  rejected  Saviour,  to  execute;  and 
consequently,  no  power  to  establish  its  yoke. 
And,  as  if  the  instinct  of  reprobation  were 
taught  by  this  experience,  as  if  the  sagacity 
of  Rome  had  fully  discovered  the  damning 
destiny  in  missions,  to  which  the  wrath  of  a 
righteous  heaven  has  consigned  her  energies, 

3* 


26  POPERY,    THE 

she  does  little  more,  at  present,  than  prowl  on 
the  pathway  of  light  and  life — little  more  than 
follow,  in  the  track  of  Protestant  missions, 
to  batten  on  the  death,  which  neglected  or 
repudiated  truth  will  ever  be  leaving,  on  the 
highway  of  her  progress,  among  the  nations. 
VI.  We  turn  from  nations  to  individuals. 
Proselytes  to  Popery  from  Protestant  ranks 
are  mostly  reprobate  men ;  by  which  we 
mean,  reprobate  towards  God:  men  of  intel- 
lect, learning,  and  taste,  it  may  be ;  and 
men  of  unblemished  morals  too,  conformed 
to  the  average  decency  of  social  life;  and 
men  of  enlarged  observation  also,  who  have 
travelled  into  many  countries,  and  compared 
many  creeds,  and  actually  tried,  perhaps, 
many  professions ;  but  whose  hearts  all  the 
while  have  disrelished  a  religion  of  con- 
science, and  failed  to  "receive  the  love  of 
the  truth;"  and,  on  that  account,  are  given 
over  of  God  to  "strong  delusion,  that  they 
should  believe  a  lie :  that  they  all  might  be 
damned  who  believed  not  the  truth,  but  had 
pleasure  in  unrighteousness." 


i 


PUNISHMENT    OF   UNBELIEF.  27 

We  trust  not  ourselves  to  speak  of  living 
examples.      "\Ye  go   back  to  the  great    re- 
storation of  Papal  authority,  on  the   conti- 
nent of  Europe,  in  the  ITth  century,  sent  to 
revenge  a  slighted  and  abused  reformation ; 
and  which    teems  with    striking    examples. 
From  the   Queen  of  Sweden,  Christina,  the 
daughter  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  whose  rest- 
less mind   early  turned,  with   disgust,  from 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  and  passed  through 
all  the  depths  of  virulent  unbelief,  into  the 
arms  of  passive  and  pleasurable   confidence 
in  Rome — down  to  that  notable  preacher  of 
Brunswick,   Henry   Julius    Blum,   who    en- 
gaged, for   a   pension   of  2000   a   year,  to 
bring  over  himself  and  his  prince  together, 
every  proselyte,  whose  history  we  read,  gave 
anterior  evidence  of  judicial  abandonment ; 
for  infidel  hatred,  or    fantastic  abstraction, 
or  tasteful  disgust,  or  immoral  aversion,  or 
venal  indifference  to  the    truth  of  the  gos- 
pel.    ''If  you  except  from   among  them," 
says  a  standard  historian,  ''all  such  as  we 
are   abundantly  assured,   were   led    to   this 


28  POPERY,    THE 


change  by  their  domestic  misfortunes,  by 
their  desire  to  advance  their  rank  and  glory, 
by  their  inordinate  love  of  wealth  and  world- 
ly advantages,  by  their  fickleness  of  mind, 
by  their  imbecility  of  intellect,  or  by  other 
causes  of  no  better  character,  you  will  re- 
duce the  whole  number  to  a  few  persons, 
■whom  no  one  will  greatly  envy  the  Roman 
Catholics." 

VII.  This  Popish  religion  itself,  is  ob- 
viously congenial  with  the  character  of  re- 
probate men,  whether  within  or  without  the 
pale  of  Popish  communion.  They  love  a  re- 
ligion of  ease :  one  that  will  save  them  the 
trouble  of  investigating  themes  which  they 
hate,  and  themes  with  which  the  unsancti- 
fied,  and  much  more  the  derelict  mind,  will 
always  grapple,  in  painful  incertitude  and 
bondage  of  terror.  Por  such,  the  Papal  de- 
lusions are  a  haven  of  rest.  The  authority 
of  the  church  relieves  them  from  searching 
the  Scriptures;  a  vicarious  priesthood,  from 
offering  spiritual  sacrifices ;  a  charm  in  the 
sacrament,  from   examining  themselves ;  in- 


PUNISHMEXT    OF   UNBELIEF.  29 

clulfTcnco  for  monev,  from  all  uneasy  ac:ita- 
tions  of  conscience ;  and  olive  oil  at  the  last, 
from  the  hard-won  victory  of  faith.  And 
yet  they  love  a  religion  that  will  exalt  the 
2?i'ide  of  their  nature.  It  is  not  humiliating 
ease  they  would  purchase,  at  the  cost  of  pri- 
vate judgment,  the  great  birthright  of  man ; 
but  one  which  will  flatter  the  bonda2;e  that 
such  a  barter  has  left — works  of  merit  in 
the  alms  and  abstinences,  the  inflictions,  the 
exploits,  the  supererogation  itself,  of  which 
they  feel  their  nature  to  be  capable,  even  in 
the  arms  of  licentious  indulgence. 

They  love  a  religion  of  sense^  imagina- 
tion^ and  taste ;  one  that  will  excite  all  the 
diversified  afl'ections  of  our  nature,  save  the 
sentiment  of  dealing  directly  with  God, 
through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And,  in 
Popery,  they  have  a  system,  which  has  been 
for  ages  adapting  itself  to  this  very  demand. 
A  gorgeous  ritual,  and  magnificent  ceremo- 
nial, pomp,  and  tinsel,  and  pageantry  vrith- 
out  end;  music  and  painting,  statuary  and 
architecture — all  the  treasures  of  art  lie  in 


30  POPERY,    THE 

her  lap.  And  tlieiij  imagination — what  riot 
has  it  taken  among  her  religious  in  every 
age  !  There  is  not,  under  heaven,  a  form  of 
human  activity,  mental  or  physical,  solitary 
or  social,  civil  or  military,  that  she  is  not 
willing  to  incorporate  with  her  movement, 
and  promise  it  salvation.  Crush  but  the 
life  of  your  moral  nature  beneath  her  wheel, 
and  you  may  turn  the  residue  of  the  man  or 
monster  into  any  possible  line  of  endeavour, 
and  she  will  indulge  it. 

They  love  a  religion  of  cherislied  antipa- 
thies :  for  the  dereliction  of  God,  will  always 
convert  the  ground-work  of  a  human  heart 
to  essential  malignity.  Inveterate  spiteful- 
ness,  from  the  aboriginal  hate  of  Satan  him- 
self, to  the  meek-eyed  wish  of  a  modern  sis- 
ter of  mercy,  pervades  every  bosom  that  is 
cast  away  for  refusing  to  receive  the  love  of 
saving  truth.  And  what  a  magazine  of  ha- 
tred is  old  Papal  Rome ! — all  sorts  of  venom, 
antique  and  modern,  open  and  concealed, 
documentary  and  spoken,  temporal  and  spir- 
itual: dungeons    of  inquisition,  daggers    of 


PUNISHMENT   OF   UNBELIEF.  31 

assassination,  and  medications  of  poison 
without  end.  What  words  of  calumny;  what 
volumes  of  anathema ;  what  galas  of  auto- 
da-fe!  What  iron  heels  for  the  strong; 
what  treacherous  lips  for  the  weak ;  what 
vengeful  pursuit  when  she  is  plaintiff  at  law ; 
what  cruel  evasion  when  she  is  defendant  at 
law ;  what  cursing,  by  bell,  book,  and  can- 
dle, does  she  enjoin  in  the  priest ;  what 
maledictions,  in  the  house,  and  by  the  way, 
and  with  the  mob,  and  at  the  polls,  does  she 
allow  in  her  people  !  Surely,  the  greatest 
miracle  of  grace,  if  such  a  thing  be  possible, 
is  to  inspire  with  true  benevolence,  a  soul 
that  is  steeped  in  the  bitterness  of  that  com- 
mon sentiment,  which  the  Papal  religion  en- 
genders. 

Thus  might  we  go  on  to  evince,  that,  in 
every  thing  peculiar  to  the  reprobate  mind. 
Popery  meets  it  with  a  genial  conformation ; 
and,  of  course,  we  are  furnished  from  this 
point,  with  strong  corroboration  of  the  truth 
we  have  asserted.     But  we  return,  to  close 


32  POPERY,    THE 


the    series    of    our   positions,  with   another 
point  or  two  from  the  context. 

VIII.  The  manner  of  his  overthrow: 
"  Whom  the  Lord  shall  consume  with  the 
spirit  of  his  mouth,  and  shall  destroy  with 
the  brightness  of  his  coming."  However 
suddenly  that  destruction  may  come,  in 
some  respects,  as  we  are  told  in  the  Apoca- 
lyptic visions  of  John,  the  language  here 
imports  a  gradual  demolition.  By  "the 
spirit  of  his  mouth,"  we  understand  the 
preaching  of  his  word ;  which  ceased  when 
the  man  of  sin  was  fully  revealed,  except  in 
the  obscure  retreats  of  the  wilderness,  where 
the  true  Church  fled  from  his  violence ; 
which  returned,  with  signal  power,  at  the 
great  Reformation;  and  which  has  continued 
ever  since  to  spread,  with  regenerating  in- 
fluence, among  the  nations.  This  mighty 
breath  of  the  gospel  comes  on  this  wicked 
opposition,  not  to  reclaim,  not  to  reform  it, 
as  would  evidently  be  the  case,  if  it  were 
a  backslidden  church  merely,  but  to  consume 


PUNISHMENT   OF    UNBELIEF.  33 

it ;  evoking  from  the  midst  of  its  thrall,  a 
people  reserved  from  its  spirit,  to  consign 
the  system  itself,  with  all  its  wilful  abettors, 
to  remediless  doom.  "For  it  is  impossible 
for  those  who  were  once  enlightened,  and 
have  tasted  of  the  heavenly  gift,  and  were 
made  partakers  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  have 
tasted  the  good  word  of  God,  and  the  powers 
of  the  world  to  come,  if  they  shall  fall  away, 
to  renew  them  again  unto  repentance;  seeing 
they  crucify  to  themselves  the  Son  of  God 
afresh,  and  put  him  to  an  open  shame." 
Let  this  awful  and  portentous  admonition 
be  collated  with  our  text,  and  considered  to 
adumbrate  the  corporate  apostasy,  of  which 
we  speak,  and  the  difficulties  of  its  exposition 
will  vanish  away. 

But  again,  it  is  said  of  this  ultimate  over- 
throw, that  the  Lord  "shall  destroy  with  the 
brightness  of  his  coming."  His  coming  at 
the  final  judgment,  does  it  mean?  Then, 
here  is  a  system,  which  nothing  in  all  the 
tide  of  time  can  meliorate  or  save  ;  which 
passes  the  power  of  a  great  reformation,  and 

4 


34  POPERY,   THE 

the  splendor  of  a  glorious  millennium,  without 
alteration  or  amendment;  and  stands  till 
the  judgment  day  of  Christ,  only  to  dissolve 
with  entire  destruction  at  the  ^'brightness  of 
his  coming:"  and,  of  course,  it  must  be  now 
the  forsaken  of  God,  petrified,  as  it  were,  by 
his  adamantine  curse,  and  abiding  for  ever  a 
monument  of  warning,  without  the  least 
affinity  or  identity  with  the  true  Church  of 
Christ.  His  coming  at  the  time  of  the  mil- 
lennium, does  it  mean  ?  Then  is  he  absent 
from  the  system  now,  entirely  absent ;  for 
the  advent  of  this  coming  glory,  will  be  the 
brilliant  expansion  of  all  that  now  enjoys 
the  presence  of  the  Saviour  :  and,  of  course, 
"the  son  of  perdition"  moves  on,  without  a 
particle  of  interest  in  the  promise,  "Lo,  I 
am  with  you  always;"  and  consequently, 
without  a  particle  of  right,  to  all  the  ordina- 
tion that  hangs  upon  that  promise — the  in- 
stitution of  the  ministry,  the  propagation  of 
missions,  and  the  administration  of  the  sa- 
craments. 

IX.   The  antithesis  of  consolation,  in  the 


PUNISHMENT   OF   UNBELIEF.  35 

13th  verse,  crowns  our  proof,  that  the  church 
of  Rome  is  but  a  doomed  antagonism  to  the 
real  Church  of  Christ :  "  But  we  are  bound 
to  give  thanks  alway  to  God  for  you,  brethren, 
beloved  of  the  Lord,  because  God  hath  from 
the  beginning  chosen  you  to  salvation, 
through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit  and  be- 
lief of  the  truth."  If  the  body  of  this  vast 
anti-christianism  were  any  thing  less  than  a 
reprobate  body,  if  there  be  in  its  identity  a 
church  transmitted,  with  a  solitary  ordinance 
of  Christ  remaining  in  force,  why  does  the 
decree  of  grace,  on  which  the  whole  church 
is  built,  utter  its  comfort,  as  the  reverse  of 
the  picture  ?  How  can  the  deep  foundations 
of  divine  redemption,  deeper  than  the  world's 
beginning,  deep  as  eternity  itself,  roll  over 
against  this  wicked  superstructure,  and  yet 
receive  it,  as  any  part  of  the  living  temple, 
which  came  down  from  God  out  of  heaven  ? 
To  quote  for  consolation  a  promise  of  the 
gospel,  might  imply,  that  the  opposite  evil  is 
no  more  than  fearful  declension;  to  quote 
for  consolation  the  faithfulness  of  God  to  his 


36  POPEEY,    THE 


people  in  the  past,  might  imply  that  the  evils 
which  threaten  them,  are  no  more  than  sad 
calamities :  but  to  quote  the  earliest  origin 
of  mercy,  the  radical  secret,  the  ultimate 
and  uttermost  resources  of  the  grace  that 
bringeth  salvation,  must  imply,  that  the  evil 
it  meets,  can  be  no  less  than  the  extremity 
of  hostile  and  accursed  antagonism,  to  the 
body  of  Christ — "the  fulness  of  Him  that 
filleth  all  in  all." 

If  then,  the  very  names  of  this  anti- 
christian  power,  import  an  utter  opposition 
to  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ — 
if  the  original  basis  of  his  strength,  was  laid 
in  the  obduracy  of  a  reprobate  world — if  the 
mode  of  his  establishment,  was  the  deceit- 
fulness  of  hell,  without  a  qualification  or  a 
limit — if  perpetuated  malice  against  the  re- 
vival of  truth  has  been  the  characteristic  of 
his  policy,  in  all  circumstances  and  places — 
if  the  inveteracy  of  these  features  can  be 
traced  on  the  map  of  Europe,  in  proportion 
to  the  amount  of  primitive  truth,  which  was 
resisted  and   rejected — if  the  transition   to 


PUNISHMENT   OF   UNBELIEF.  3T 

his  ranks  from  tlie  knowledge  of  gospel 
truth,  is  still  accompanied  with  evidence  of 
a  prior  rejection  of  that  truth — if  the  well 
known  characteristics  of  the  reprobate  mind, 
are  all  met  with  corresponding  aptitudes  in 
this  body,  w^hich  has  had  ages  to  mould  its 
genial  propensities — if  the  appointed  means 
for  reforming  the  church  and  saving  the 
w^orld,  come  on  this  system  only  to  consume 
and  destroy  it ;  the  same  waters  of  the  sanc- 
tuary that  flow  out  to  fertilize  every  other 
spot  in  the  waste  of  our  nature,  flow  over 
this  one  only  to  convert  it  into  "the  miry 
places  and  marshes"  which  can  never  be 
healed,  but  must  be  "given  to  salt" — and  if 
the  sole  consolation  of  the  church  against 
the  dreary  perspective,  is  brought  from  a 
decree  of  election  which  stands  in  perpetual 
contrast  with  the  decree  of  reprobation — we 
conclude  that  Popery  is  an  organized  form 
of  God' s  judicial  ivrath  against  the  unbelief 
of  men — the  hopeless  counterpart,  in  revealed 
religion,  to  that  dismal  picture  of  apostasy, 
in  natural  religion,  with  which  the  Spirit  of 

4* 


38  POPERY,    THE 

inspiration  hj  the  mouth  of  Paul  an  apostle, 
introduced  to  the  Christians  of  Pagan  Rome, 
the  great  article  of  a  standing  or  a  falling 
church. 

We  learn  from  this  subject,  in  conclusion, 
how  to  understand  the  boast  of  continuance, 
with  which  the  man  of  sin  vaunts  his  own 
superiority  over  all  the  changes  that  have 
overthrown  other  institutions  of  men.  He 
is  founded  on  a  rocJc,  indeed,  but  it  is  a  rock 
of  adamant  in  the  human  heart,  which  the 
insulted  Spirit  of  God  has  left  to  its  own 
hardness  for  ever.  That  rock  cannot  be 
broken  by  the  surges  of  political  or  social 
revolution.  It  stands  as  firmly  among  free- 
men, as  bondmen ;  unless  it  be  the  freemen, 
"whom  the  truth  makes  free."  The  shak- 
ing of  the  nations  now  at  which  we  are  so 
much  astonished,  is  not  the  agitation  at 
which  Popery  must  crumble;  we  wait  for 
another,  for  a  "  yet  once  more,"  when  God 
will  shake,  not  the  earth  only,  but  the  hea- 
vens also,  and  come  down,  with  the  bright- 
ness  and  glory  of  pentecostal  changes.     It 


PUNISHMENT   OF   UNBELIEF.  39 

may  be  that  Popery,  in  its  outward  form  of 
despotism,  in  that  union  with  the  State, 
which  mainly  reared  its  power  at  the  first, 
will  perish  this  very  year.  For,  let  it  be 
observed,  the  suffrages  of  commentators, 
have,  with  perhaps  a  great  majority,  desig- 
nated this  year  in  the  force  of  their  calcu- 
lations for  the  overthrow  of  him,  '^who  op- 
pose th  and  exalteth  himself  above  all  that  is 
called  God,  or  that  is  worshipped."  Say, 
that  the  year  606  was  the  epoch  of  his  full 
revelation;  when  Boniface  III.  was  pro- 
claimed universal  bishop,  by  the  bloody 
Phocas ;     and    add    the    duration    throuorh 

a 

which  he  was  to  "  wear  out  the  saints  of  the 
Most  High" — ''a  time  and  times  and  the 
dividing  of  time" — or  three  years  and  a  half 
of  years,  a  day  for  a  year ;  and  the  apoca- 
lyptic month  being  30  days,  and,  of  course, 
the  whole  duration  1260  years,  we  have  the 
whole  number  1866;  and  subtracting  5  days 
for  each  year,  to  make  it  correspond  with 
our  time,  we  are  brought  precisely  to  the  year 
1818,  for  this  grand  consummation.     It  may 


40  POPERY,    THE 


be,  that  the  dreadful  reprobation  of  God 
upon  a  faithless  Christendom,  is  about  to 
shift  its  ancient  form  entirely,  and  take  the 
shape  of  socialism,^  instead  of  churchism^  in 
which  to  persecute  the  saints  and  blot  the 
■world.  But,  however  this  may  be,  essential 
Popery  will  remain  as  long  as  the  wrath  of 
God  remains  on  the  unbelief  of  men,  in  any 
organized  form;  long  as  the  latter-day  glory 
is  withheld,  and  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
is  attended  with  no  mighty  revivals,  and 
overspreading  life. 

And  here,  my  brethren,  in  this  happy 
land  of  Bibles,  and  Sabbaths,  and  pulpits, 
we  are  destined,  in  the  light  of  this  subject, 
to  a  conflict  with  Popery  in  its  ultimate  and 
utmost  power.  Here,  re-invigorated  by  de- 
liberate rejection  of  the  living  truth,  divested 
of  its  lumbering  despotism  and  obsolete  enor- 
mities, it  comes  to  marshal  that  terrible  re- 
serve, which  has  hitherto  been  buried  from 
our  sight,  in  the  depths  of  our  apostate 
nature.  Here,  unless  a  Pentecost  shall  in- 
terpose, there  will  be  vast  accession  to  its 


PUNISHMENT   OF   UNBELIEF.  41 

ranks,  from  the  millions  whom  God  will  leave 
to  perish  in  their  unbelief,  long  before  their 
lives  are  ended.  What  multitudes  of  irre- 
ligious men  among  us,  do  already  range 
themselves  upon  the  side  of  Popery,  instinc- 
tively disposed  to  plead  apologies  for  her,  to 
condemn  the  opening  of  our  lips  against  her, 
and,  with  all  varieties  of  outward  devoir  to 
indicate  the  willing  change  their  hearts  would 
make  of  faith  and  love,  for  her  form  and 
fashion,  and  visible  advantage !  And,  with 
all  our  freeness,  there  is  no  country  where 
so  many  countervailing  influences  resist  the 
power  of  Divine  truth ;  political  excitement, 
which  absorbs  the  man  from  boyhood  to  old 
age;  immoderate  pursuit  of  gain  for  which 
we  are  distinguished  among  all  the  nations 
of  the'  earth;  passion  for  adventure  which 
tears  the  susceptibility  of  youth  so  early 
away  from  the  influences  that  would  sanctify, 
to  the  influences  that  only  harden  and  cor- 
rupt— these  are  peculiarities  of  the  nation, 
which  all  tend  to  defeat  the  gospel ;  and,  of 
course,  to  enthrone   that  wicked   one,   who 


42  *  POPERY,    THE 


comes  at  once,  the  substitute  and  the  avenger 
of  rejected  mercy,  "in  them  that  perish." 

What  manner  of  persons  ought  we  to  be, 
mj  brethren,  in  view  of  these  things  ;  we, 
the  ministers  of  that  gospel,  which  has  such 
a  "savour  of  death  unto  death!"  How 
should  we  gird  up  the  loins  of  our  mind,  for 
the  mighty  struggle  which  cannot  be  for- 
borne ;  how  contend  with  indigenous  propen- 
sities, which,  more  than  foreign  propagand- 
ism,  more  than  all  the  myrmidons  of  Jesuit- 
ism, that  trans-atlantic  states  vomit  on  our 
shores,  call  for  anxious  and  uttermost  en- 
deavour ?  Let  the  edge  of  controversy  be 
drawn  again  from  the  armories  of  the  great 
Reformation  ;  let  the  tenderness  of  youth  be 
imbued  with  saving  knowledge,  in  parochial 
schools ;  let  Bibles  be  scattered  over  all  the 
land,  like  dew  drops  of  the  morning ;  let  the 
volumes  of  our  sacred  literature  flow  on  to 
every  door  that  colportage  can  open ;  let  the 
house  of  God  go  up  in  every  township  of 
the  western  wilderness;  let  the  missionary 
take  his  station  in  the  heart  of  Papal   coun- 


PUNISHMENT  OF   UNBELIEF*  43 

tries,  before  the  emigrant  shall  come  to  the 
more  hopeless  perdition  of  Poperj,  as  it  is 
refined  and  hardened  here;  let  the  pulpit  be 
adorned  with  men  of  faith,  and  love,  and 
light,  who  will  not  taint  the  breath  of  the 
everlasting  gospel  with  their  own  unsancti- 
fied  tempers — and  above  all,  men  of  zeal  for 
revivals  of  religion,  who  will  preach,  and 
pray,  and  believe,  and  toil,  and  look  for 
them,  with  intense  yearning  of  soul.  Here 
is  the  bane  of  Antichrist — here  alone  the 
potency  that  will  send  him,  like  a  millstone, 
to  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  The  man  who  is 
not  for  revivals,  with  all  his  heart  and  hand, 
is  not  the  man  for  this  country  and  this  age : 
he  has  not  proved  the  armour  which  must 
now  be  worn,  and  in  which  the  battle  must 
be  won.  Never,  never,  will  Babylon  be 
fallen,  till,  through  every  wonted  sanctuary 
of  prayer,  public,  private,  family,  and  social, 
the  unwearied  supplication  ascend:  ^'Return, 
0  Lord,  how  long  ?  and  let  it  repent  thee 
concerning  thy  servants.  0  satisfy  us  early 
with  thy  mercy ;  that  we  may  rejoice  and  be 


44  POPERY,    &C. 


glad  all  our  clays.  Make  us  glad  according 
to  the  days  wherein  thou  hast  afflicted  us, 
and  the  years  wherein  we  have  seen  evil. 
Let  thy  work  appear  unto  thy  servants,  and 
thy  glory  unto  their  children.  And  let  the 
beauty  of  the  Lord  our  God  be  upon  us:  and 
establish  thou  the  work  of  our  hands  upon 
us ;  yea,  the  work  of  our  hands  establish 
thou  it." 


THE   END. 


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